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“Since I’m now into my last few days off work, I decided it was time to try one of the wintery teas I’ve had in my stash for a while, but not yet got around to trying. I love Chai in the...”
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From Twinings

Indulgent Vanilla Chai

Spicy Chai black tea with creamy rich vanilla flavours – this blend is sweet, comforting and aromatic. Try it with a big splash of milk and a little bit of sugar for an exotic taste of India. Every sip feels like a deliciously warm hug.

3 Tasting Notes

Since I’m now into my last few days off work, I decided it was time to try one of the wintery teas I’ve had in my stash for a while, but not yet got around to trying. I love Chai in the winter, preferably as a latte. It’s a bit complex to make at work, though, so I usually reserve this pleasure for home.

Over the last few months, as I’ve developed my taste for and appreciation of different teas, I’ve moved away from plain bombay-style chais, and onto flavoured ones. I picked this one up from Twinings back in November, I think. I’m not always a great fan of Twinings, because sometimes I feel the quality just isn’t there, but this is a niiiice chai.

It has an assam base, and the dry leaves smell faintly spicy, with a strong creamy vanilla overtone. Brewed, the scent is very similar. As I was hoping, the vanilla predominates, the spices complement, and the black tea base provides a sturdy, fulfilling foundation. I made this as a latte, so it’s pretty pale-looking once I’ve added the milk, but this absolutely hasn’t destroyed the flavour. If anything, the creaminess of the milk helps to highlight the vanilla, making this one of the most pleasing teas I’ve tried in a while. This is almost perfectly balanced, for my taste. And I’ve no doubt it’ll go down perfectly with the slice of Christmas cake I’ve got my eye on. Chalk another one up for Chai. This is divine.

Preparation

Bought this off the Twinings website (on sale, plus a one-day code for free shipping). The caddy is lovely, so even if I don’t like the tea it’s no great loss.

For some reason the website didn’t list the ingredients for this product, and I was a bit disappointed to see “Christmas spice flavouring” on the label. Upon opening the caddy, it smells a bit acrid, maybe like imitation mulled wine flavour (that seems to be a popular addition to Christmas teas around here), and hardly any hint of vanilla.

I used a heaping teaspoon of the loose tea and just enough water to cover the infuser (a bit less than 8 ounces/240 mL), steeped for 5 minutes, added 1 tsp sugar and a bit of unsweetened soya milk. It’s pretty bland – worse than I’d expected when I ordered it, but definitely better than the sickly artificial scent that wafted out of the tin. I think I can actually sort of taste the vanilla. There’s some spice in there, but chai it ain’t.